Problem with my new Ilford 600H......ideas?

I just was given an enlarger which has a Ilford 600H in trade for some work I've been doing. It has been in storage for several years, and the owner wasn't using it in his lab when he got it (came to him from another friend who was closing his business). Anyway - I got it all together this afternoon and am running into some troubles right away;

1) Everytime the 600P is turned on, the controller reads "CONT ERR" - I press CLEAR and it goes away. Really just annoying, but still...

2) When I press EXPOSE, the head begins to chatter and then it stops, after about 10 seconds of this noise, then controller displays "LOOP ERR 5". I took the shroud off from around the head and watched what was making the noise. There are a pair of concentric rings which are rotated by a stepper motor. When the head is first turned on, they rotate around to a resting position (it appears that these move a pair of filters in and out of the light source). When I press EXPOSE, these rings are step around, but then they can't turn far enough to do their job. I think these rings are not sitting in the right spot to begin with, or there is a limit sensor that is not working.

I've consulted the owners manual online, there is no mention of this error code. Anyone every had to fiddle with one of these?

Thanks for the help !

Jeromie

I didn't even know there was a 600H head, I thought they only went up to 500H. I've fixed a few enlargers in the past, but it's hard to even make an educated guess without a photo or video showing what is going on. If you could make a short clip with your problem, post it on YouTube or something similar and post that link here, I think you will get some answers. Lots of great trouble-shooters on this forum and it's worth the 20 minutes it would take to get a photo up online.

Hmmmm - I'll see if my daughters camera takes video. Then I'll see if she'll make the video for me (I'm a lame old fart who still shoots film ;-)

Crazy idea/hunch: Is there a PRAM battery or something similar in there? If so, it may have run down and may need to be replaced.

J

Well, a quick google shows there is a battery in there. May be worth checking. Also, there is a switch for 120 or 220V, and it looks like it comes preset at 220V. Are you set at 220?

This .pdf is pretty good:

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2007319161818802.pdf

Best,
J

I have that manual also - didn't think about the battery - I'll go look for that tomorrow after work. As fort he 120 / 220 setting. It's probably already at 120 since it was being used here in the States - but to be sure I will look at that too. In the box that came with this there is a plastic tube with two IC's in it. They are EPROM sized, but they are not EPROMS - same number of pins, and same socket, but there is a cmaller 8-pin chip mounted in the casing.

Hopefully the battery will not be the dread 1/2 AA. Murder to find locally when you really need one!
J

If this has a closed loop system, the "LOOP ERR" is probably indicative of a calibration failure. ie the controller is trying to adjust/calibrate itself to the output of the lamp but it isn't getting the expected feedback. It could be either electronic or mechanical although given it's failing a self test at the start I suspect there might be something electronic going on. It'd be worth disconnecting the power and making sure all the connections are secure - it could be something as trivial as a loose wire or an IC which isn't seated properly. You can also try replacing the battery as has been suggested but in my opinion a dud battery should only affect user settings and shouldn't stop the thing from working - I could of course be wrong.

According to the manual, the Cont Err means:
"An unrealistic contrast value has been set in the grade table for the paper grade required."

The suggested corrective action is:
"Check the paper/grade table and re-enter revised values as necessary or select ‘Contrast’ and press ‘Clear’ to reset the factory settings.

Try selecting Contrast and pressing CLEAR to reset the factory default values. If that fails, most likely the battery is dead, and those values may have been lost.

I expect the noise associated with the dichroic filter movement is a result of it trying to move to a value outside its normal range.
I would avoid hitting EXPOSE (and thus avoid the noise) until you get the Cont Err problem fixed. Attempting an exposure could damage the mechanism.

The backup battery should be a 'coin' cell inside the control unit. Hopefully it's in a socket, not soldered directly to the board.
Lithium coin cells have a nominal service life of ten years, but may fail sooner. The unit might be more than ten years old.

I have a 500H, but it's quite different. It has two 300w lamps, each with its own fixed dichroic filter, one green and one blue.

- Leigh

I have the Ilford 600H system. It is also known as the Durst Multigraph. Do you have the maintenence manual for it?

Mark_S said:

I have the Ilford 600H system. It is also known as the Durst Multigraph. Do you have the maintenence manual for it?

Click to expand...

Hi - Nope - I don't have the manual. This one came as part of a DeVere 504 Sentinel alto focus enlarger. It is only marked as a Ilford 600H (with the 500P power supply and the 600 series controller).

Leigh B said:

According to the manual, the Cont Err means:
"An unrealistic contrast value has been set in the grade table for the paper grade required."

The suggested corrective action is:
"Check the paper/grade table and re-enter revised values as necessary or select ‘Contrast’ and press ‘Clear’ to reset the factory settings.

Try selecting Contrast and pressing CLEAR to reset the factory default values. If that fails, most likely the battery is dead, and those values may have been lost.

I expect the noise associated with the dichroic filter movement is a result of it trying to move to a value outside its normal range.
I would avoid hitting EXPOSE (and thus avoid the noise) until you get the Cont Err problem fixed. Attempting an exposure could damage the mechanism.

The backup battery should be a 'coin' cell inside the control unit. Hopefully it's in a socket, not soldered directly to the board.
Lithium coin cells have a nominal service life of ten years, but may fail sooner. The unit might be more than ten years old.

I have a 500H, but it's quite different. It has two 300w lamps, each with its own fixed dichroic filter, one green and one blue.

- Leigh

Click to expand...

Thanks Leigh - I opened the controller part way last night. There's about 10 more internal screws to remove the PC board. I'm a hobby audophile and build my own amps, so even if it's a mounted battery, I'll be ok replacing it. The online manual is a little thin on reset tips - so I really appreciate your Contrast>Clear tip. I have also about 5 sets of Ilford 500 systems (in various states of condition, all untested). If this 600 head won't start working properly I'm probably going to swap it out for one of the 500's. Trouble is, the mounting brackets are different and I don't know if I have the right one for the DeVere.

I will look more closely at all the cables, and the probe connections. Between all of the Ilford wires, I've also got the ZBE DeVere auto focus system cables to deal with (that is another problem - I'll post a different thread once I have the light source issues solved).

Well - good news - sort of. I followed everyone's advice about the CLEAR contrast step - and after a little fussing I am now able to get the 600H to expose at all grades. Problem pops back up if I move from channel to channel or from paper preset to preset. Shutting it off then back on brings it all back (at least it seems to). I cleaned the glass inside with some RoR and a few steril swabs - then buttoned it all back together. I'm going to move it into my lab later this week (have to unscrew all the cables and move the modules first).

As I get a better grip of this problem I'll share whatever I find with everyone here.

Thanks to EVERYONE for the help - APUG ROCKS !

SUCCESS !! A fellow APUG'er helped me out - I read the maintenance manual and learned that my contrast tables were all out of whack. I followed the proceedure (easy once I did it a few times) - and reprogrammed all 4 Paper contrast presets. There are 4 adjustments for each grade; CONTRAST, YELLOW, MAGENTA and D-COMP. As I scrolled thru these, many were completly wrong. Once I reset everything to its proper value the controller and light head began working normally - no more problems. Best news was after I shut it all off and turned it back on, everything was still good. I am in contact with a guy who used to work for Ilford, am going to ask him about an internal battery and also about this particular condition (what may have caused it). Total time to reprogram everything was about 10 minutes (with a total reading time of about 30 minutes prior to starting - I needed to make sure I understand what was being said).

Now I'm on to tackle the ZBE Auto Focus system !